Microsoft Azure Stack preview adds more support for Azure Functions

Microsoft has launched an update to the technical preview of its Azure Stack that will offer advanced support for Azure functions. Azure Stack is the testimony of Microsoft’s perspective on “serverless” event-driven computing. Along with the Azure Stack update, the release will also include Azure App Service, cloud tools from Microsoft to quickly develop and deploy cloud-based applications, and Azure’s updated versions of SQL/MySQL database. Recent studies reveal that Azure is becoming a formidable rival of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

As soon as the update goes live, it is expected to challenge the existing contemporaries of Azure like OpenStack and Cloud Foundry, two ambitious projects designed to bring public cloud and cloud-based PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) into enterprise data centers. Microsoft has a strong relationship and partnership with many companies that are already using Azure service and with hardware suppliers who can build robust, certified hardware for Azure. Microsoft is also planning to have a single platform for hosting apps in Azure cloud as well as on-premises so that the developers get a unified platform for development. Moreover, this idea will attract enterprises as they can save costs.

All these features are aimed to bring many of Azure’s features into the enterprise data centers. A report from EnterpriseTech on cloud transformation states that though Google and AWS are leading the pack, IBM SoftLayer and Microsoft Azure are rated on top when it comes to “understand my business” category. Many enterprises are now shifting to a multi-cloud strategy, which is a positive sign for Azure. Microsoft Azure is emerging as a dreadful competitor of AWS with the former being the preferred choice of 35% of survey respondents, while the latter is leading at a marginal rate of 39%.

The update to Microsoft Azure Stack will diminish AWS’ dominance in the cloud sector and pave the way for Azure’s rapid growth. The Azure Stack will be rolled out completely by end of this year.